PRIZES, COMPETITIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE BLUE AND GREEN ECONOMIES FEBRUARY 2019

THE AWARD

The Green Alley Award is the award for startups and entrepreneurs in the circular economy.

Our mission is to turn the linear into a circular economy and transform the waste and recycling industry as we know it today. This annual European prize was created in 2014

by Landbell Group, the leading supplier of global environmental services, along with Germany’s crowdfunding pioneer, Seedmatch. Over time, more partners have joined

– Bethnal Green Ventures, a UK accelerator programme for startups using tech for good, and R2Pi, an EU Horizon 2020 project on circular economy business models.

Together, we nurture and promote promising business ideas that use new services, products and technologies to turn waste into a resource.

Enter The Eco-Logic Awards 2019

You are invited to nominate an eco-champion that you believe is making a positive contribution towards creating an eco-logical society and environment – or nominate your own organisation, product or project under one (or more) of the following 13 Categories. Closing date for entries is the 15th of February 2019.

(Please note: The Eco-Logic Awards are currently only for organisations operating in South Africa)

Read more on judging criteria here.

1. The Biodiversity AwardAwarded to an organisation for a successful biodiversity protection, rehabilitation, or damage mitigation programme

2. The Climate Change AwardAwarded to an organisation that has achieved a substantial reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions or has created effective mitigation or adaptation programmes to address climate change

3. The Eco-Innovation AwardFor a new product or service that is financially viable and sustainable, that serves the needs of humans whilst being equally beneficial to the Earth and its eco-systems

4. The Energy Efficiency AwardFor a product or service that results in energy saving

5. The Recycling and Waste Management AwardFor a policy, programme or project that has demonstrably contributed to a greater public understanding and participation in waste reduction, re-use and recycling

6. The Eco-Build AwardFor innovations, adaptations, products or services that improve the environmental sustainability and/or resilience of a (new or existing) building.

7. The Water Conservation AwardFor a product or service that results in water saving.

8. The Green Economy AwardFor a business organisation that provides a product , service or programme that supports the growth of the Green Economy in South Africa.

9. The Municipalities AwardAwarded to a municipality that has developed solutions using its risk assessment and management expertise, forming strategic partnerships to improve sustainability, as well as service delivery in municipal functions.

10.The Eco-Community AwardFor a community that has acted collectively to protect, preserve, or restore the Earths life forms, eco-systems, or natural resources.

11. The Eco-Youth AwardFor an individual of 26 years or under who can show that their actions have protected, preserved or improved the Earth’s eco-systems and natural resources.

12. The Eco-Angel AwardFor an individual, whose actions have conserved, nurtured or restored the Earth’s life forms, eco-systems, or natural resources.

13. The Eco-Warrior AwardFor an individual, whose actions have defended, protected or prevented damage to the Earth’s life forms, eco-systems, or natural resources.

Enter The Awards!Enter Online

Complete your entry form using the link below (as a precaution please save your answers in a Word Doc to prevent loss of information in case of a web error):

Enter Online (NOTE: If you do not receive a confirmation of entry email please notify us – networking@enviropaedia.com )

Nominate

networking@enviropaedia.com

BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2019 ✨

ENTRIES NOW OPEN!The BusinessGreen Leaders Awards, now in their ninth year, are back for 2019! The Leaders Awards provide pioneering businesses with the perfect opportunity to showcase their sustainability efforts.The UK's most prestigious and high profile green business awards will bring together the best and brightest from across the green community to celebrate the projects, individuals, teams and organisations that are redefining what it means to be a successful business. 

The awards shine a light on the UK's leading green businesses and recognise the immense progress the UK's green business community has made in recent years, as sustainable business models and clean technologies have continued to force their way into the mainstream. The theme of this year's awards is ambition, in recognition of the boldness and determination that now defines all the best green businesses, projects, and initiatives.

The awards celebrate businesses, NGOs, public sector bodies and individuals across 25 different categories and are rigorously judged by a panel of sustainability professionals and green economy leaders. The awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 26 June at The Brewery in London.

Entries are now open and will close on Friday 15 March, 5pm. Click here to enter now.

GREEN PRODUCT AWARD

https://gp-award.com/en/gpaward

esign, Sustainability & BusinessThe international Green Product Award provides a platform for manufacturers, design studios & agencies that are distinguished by their products & services in terms of design, innovation and sustainability and who want to present themselves on the German market.

Highlight 2019: The products of the Green Selection form the heart of the new Green Campus special area at the International Crafts Fair in Munich. With 125,000 visitors and 2500 square meters of space for the presentation and sale of green products, the Green Campus is the largest green marketplace in Europe.

The products will be presented in curated green showrooms on the 350 sqm special award area. A green pop-up store offers green accessories to take away and in the Future Shop, the best green concepts and prototypes show the future.

https://conservationxlabs.com/grand-challenges-for-conservation/

THE GRAND CHALLENGES FOR CONSERVATION: HARNESSING A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF

SOLVERS & ENTREPRENEURSPrizes and Challenges are global competitions to create solutions for a wicked conservation problem, with a cash prize for the most

innovative and impactful ideas. We run open prizes and challenges to harness the collective ingenuity of thousands of entrepreneurs,

makers, engineers, researchers, and innovators.

Conservation X Labs has provided millions of dollars to support ideas and innovative businesses that address key underlying drivers of extinction and disrupt the field of conservation as we know it. We

have launched Grand Challenges for oceans, invasive species,

cooling, and freshwater ecosystems. After each open innovation competition, we design programs to help scale and accelerate

solutions tailored to the industry and field.

EXPLORE OUR PRIZES, CHALLENGES, & IMPACT BELOW

Current Prizes & Challenges

THE GLOBAL COOLING PRIZE

A $3 million innovation competition to develop a climate-friendly residential cooling solution that can provide access to cooling to people around the world without warming the planet. The Global Cooling Prize was launched in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute and the government of India in 2018.

LEARN ABOUT THE PRIZE

THE ‘O’HIA CHALLENGE

An invasive fungal pathogen called Rapid ‘Ōhiʻa Death (ROD) has decimated Hawaiian forests.  Conservation X Labs, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service are partnering to identify advanced technological solutions to detect and prevent the spread of ROD. 

SUBMIT YOUR SOLUTION

THE WATER CHALLENGE

The first Saving Water for Nature Grand Challenge will launch in 2019 in partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation informed by our report on the Ten Grand Challenges for Water & Biodiversity Conservation. Get notified of the launch and join the Grand Challenge Coalition as a partner below.

JOIN THE COALITION

Our Impact: The Blue Economy ChallengeThe Blue Economy Challenge was the first Grand Challenge for

Conservation that sought solutions for alternative protein, new ocean products, and fish-free feed that were scalable,

transformative, impactful, feasible, and financially & ecologically sustainable. Conservation X Labs ran the $2.3 million challenge in partnership with InnovationXChange, Australia’s Department of

Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), SecondMuse, and World Wildlife Fund US (WWF).

221 entries with innovative solution ideas across 3 Challenge categories.

517 individuals across 71 countries entered the competition.

$2.3M was awarded to 10 winners. Learn more about the winners here.

Launching the Grand Challenges for Ocean Conservation Working Paper became a widely regarded landscape analysis for oceans innovation.

Identified winners to join the follow-on Oceans X Labs accelerator in partnership with WWF.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BEC

DOWNLOAD THE PDF

THE LANDSCAPE ANALYSISAs part of our scoping and design process for The Grand Challenges for Conservation, Conservation X Labs develops a landscape analysis that encompasses all current innovation in the industry.

These reports demonstrate our thought leadership and are considered industry standards for open innovation. Each report identifies the most pressing challenges in the field where technology and innovation can create exponential solutions to extinction’s underlying drivers.

Our first report, Launching the Grand Challenges for Ocean Conservation, outlines the most impactful ocean conservation challenges and a pathway to solve them.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

LEARN HOW WE SCALE SOLUTIONS

SCALING & ACCELERATORSAfter each Grand Challenges for Conservation, we work to bring promising innovations to scale by creating incubator and accelerator programs.

Launched with World Wildlife Fund (US), Oceans X Labs was the world’s first conservation technology accelerator designed to develop scalable innovations that directly address wicked sustainability challenges for aquaculture, and to bring the most transformative innovations from the Blue Economy Challenge to scale.

Conservation X Labs built and operated OXL securing $2M+ of external investment for the 6-company cohort of aquaculture companies.

LEARN HOW OXL SCALED SOLUTIONS

Running a Grand Challenge with CXLTHE CXL PROCESSConservation X Labs selects and designs our challenges through a multi-month research and development process that consults dozens of global experts and applies our proprietary analysis to identify wicked problems for conservation ripe for innovation. These activities include:

Gathering world-class experts for Big Thinks Consulting global field leaders Conducting extensive research Leveraging our proprietary analysis Applying our open innovation expertise Building & strengthening partnerships Designing exponential open innovation competitions Creating follow-on opportunities to scale winners

Global Leaders at the Water & Biodiversity Conservation Big Think, 2018

Glob

http://www.bluegrowth.gr/

n order to reach their full potential, maritime and water economic activities need synergies, innovation and the sustainability principles in practice. This approach, combined with a long-term focus, would enable them to respond effectively to the current social and environmental challenges. The engagement of local communities and administration, as well as adequate support from local, national, and international policy will also be crucial to this progress.

Within this framework, the Blue Growth marine challenge competition is looking for original innovative business ideas for products and services in the following categories:

Information & Communication Technologies Environmental Protection & Energy Conservation Fisheries Sustainable Maritime Tourism Water use Shipping & Logistics

3d Bluegrowth Patras Competition

Call for entryCall for entry of 3rd BlueGrowth Patras Competition is now open!

The Bluegrowth aims to inspire and support startups with innovative ideas relating to the blue economy, including shipping, tourism, fisheries, and the marine ecosystem. The process is carried out through the competition Bluegrowth, that was organized for the 3nrd year in a row, in which take part teams that have submitted their proposals. The selected ones join the “incubation” program of BlueGrowth Piraeus, building a strong foundation to entry the “business world.

If you have an innovative idea relating to the blue economy, submit your proposal for the 3rd BlueGrowth Patras Competition.

Call for papers: Ocean Yearbook Student Prize   2019 The Ocean Yearbook‘s annual competition for students writing research papers on “marine affairs” is open to submissions until 13 May 2019. The Student Prize 2019 will include publication in a subsequent issue of the Ocean Yearbook. A definition of maritime affairs is included within the call.

For more information on eligibility and submissions, see here.

MONDAY JANUARY 28TH, 2019BY BIANCA LA PLACA

Equator Prize 2019, the call for nominations is openThe Equator Prize 2019 will be awarded to outstanding community and indigenous initiatives that are advancing nature-based solutions for local sustainable development. Each winning group will receive USD 10,000 and will be invited to participate in a series of policy dialogues and special events during the United Nations General Assembly and the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in New York in September 2019, culminating in a high-level award ceremony at the beginning of Climate Week.

The Equator Prize 2019 will have a special focus on

–        initiatives that protect, restore or sustainably manage natural environments–        initiatives that promote local models for climate-smart food and agricultural production systems–        innovative ways to finance nature-based solutions for sustainable development and climate change

The nomination deadline will be 26 February 2019.Nominations can be submitted in 8 languages. For further information and to nominate visit the website or contact prize@equatorinitiative.org

PRIZE PURSE: $5 MILLION PHASE: Solution Development

AI to solve the world’s challenges

The $5 million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE is a global competition challenging teams to develop and demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful AI technologies to tackle the world’s Grand Challenges.

PRIZE PURSE: $10 MILLION PHASE: Registration

Anywhere is possible

The $10M ANA Avatar XPRIZE is a four-year global competition focused on the development of an Avatar System that will transport a human’s sense, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time, leading to a more connected world. 

PRIZE PURSE: $20 MILLION PHASE: Testing & Certification

Recycling CO₂ into valuable products

The $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE is a global competition to develop breakthrough technologies that will convert CO₂ emissions from power plants and industrial facilities into valuable products like building materials, alternative fuels and other items that we use every day. 

PRIZE PURSE: $15 MILLION PHASE: Testing & Certification

Empowering children to take control of their own learning

The $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE challenges teams from around the world to develop open-source, scalable software that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within 15 months.

PRIZE PURSE: $0 MILLION PHASE: Seeking Title Sponsor

The new space race

Thanks to the concluded Google Lunar XPRIZE, at least five private companies have solidified launch contracts and are hoping to land on the surface of the Moon within the next two years. Because of this tremendous progress, XPRIZE has decided to re-launch a Lunar-focused XPRIZE competition with new parameters that will complete our original mission of making the impossible possible.

Welcome to the next chapter of this new space race.

PRIZE PURSE: $7 MILLION PHASE: Testing & Certification

Transforming the lives of low-literate adults

The $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation is a global competition challenging teams to develop mobile applications for existing smart devices that result in the greatest increase in literacy skills among participating adult learners in just 12 months.

PRIZE PURSE: $7 MILLION PHASE: Testing & Certification

Discovering the mysteries of the deep sea

The $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE is a global competition challenging teams to advance deep sea technologies for autonomous, fast, high-resolution ocean exploration.  

PRIZE PURSE: $1 MILLION PHASE: Registration

Transforming one million lives through literacy 

The $1 million Adult Literacy XPRIZE Communities Competition challenges communities and organizations across the country to empower adults with low literacy skills to download and use a free, effective, convenient and private mobile learning tool. XPRIZE will provide the educational apps – you just have to get them into the hands of learners.

Observations7 Award-Winning Apps Launch a Mobile Age for the Ocean EconomyAnnouncing the winners of the XPRIZE Ocean Initiative's challenge to turn data into much-needed ocean servicesBy Matthew Mulrennan, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on February 16, 2018

Credit: Alexander Rhind Getty Images

Every single day over 20 terabytes (that’s 20 million megabytes!) of ocean data are collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—not to mention all the other organizations collecting data about the ocean. These bytes help us understand currents, water quality, fish populations and coral reefs. But despite being publically available, barely anyone accesses the government and academic data repositories. So, is it available? Technically yes. But is it easily accessible in a useful way? No, not really. These ocean data are valuable, and the fact that it’s collecting dust is a market failure. From shipping, to fishing, tourism, and recreation, the U.S. “blue economy” produces $352 billion in goods and services, and employs more than 3 million people. How might we unlock this wealth of data and put it to use for business, conservation and recreation?To answer that question, the  XPRIZE Ocean Initiative  launched the  Big Ocean Button Challenge on Herox—a global mobile app development competition to turn ocean data into needed ocean services. This competition was designed to encourage app developers and data scientists to work toward a future where the world’s ocean data is available at our fingertips, visualized in a user-friendly and meaningful way.We share the vision of a “new blue   economy ," a diverse and solution-based ocean economy built on environmental intelligence and data, not just extractive industries. Commercial weather data is worth billions of dollars, and ocean data shouldn’t be far behind, once the data products and markets mature. We aren’t there yet, but the winners of the Big Ocean Button Challenge are leading the way toward an ocean that is healthy, valued and understood.ADVERTISEMENTOut of 80 submissions, these seven winners will be splitting $100,000 in prizes for the best apps in shipping and trade, exploration, public safety, fishing and ocean acidification, with bonus prizes for conservation, education and integrating multiple datasets. 

Credit: Navisea1.  Navisea  (Winner: Shipping and Trade) Navisea is designed for planning and tracking ocean voyages, and includes data on traffic, ports, docks, navigation and weather. This app can make navigation tools accessible to smaller vessels and marry data from the economic-focused shipping industry with the environmental-focused government and NGO datasets.“There's no reason that we can't begin to develop practices in the shipping industry that take environmental factors into further account.” — Navisea team  

Credit: FishAngler2. FishAngler (Winner: Fishing) FishAngler enables anglers (a.k.a. recreational fishermen, of which there are over 45 million in the U.S.) to log fishing experiences, discover new spots and access NOAA and USGS weather and water data. This app could be a platform to crowdsource fish catch data, which would help fisheries managers, the scientific community and the fishing community to better understand and protect fish stocks.“I got bored being retired and I wanted to bring technology to the fishing industry and build something unique that captures one's fishing memories across family generations!” — FishAngler team

ADVERTISEMENT Credit: SeaStatus3. SeaStatus Marine Weather (Winner: Public Safety, Integrating Multiple Datasets) SeaStatus delivers personalized marine weather data to anyone with an internet-connected mobile device. This app translates super complex datasets into a simple interface, and helps mariners navigate safely.“With incredible weather, nautical communities, and access to everything the Pacific Ocean has to offer, the impetus for this app was to empower [Southern Californians] to take advantage of what they have.” — SeaStatus team

Credit: SeaSee4. SeaSee (Winner: Exploration, Education) SeaSee App shows us what the world would look like if the oceans were drained of water, using bathymetric (seafloor depth) data to generate 3D views. This app allows you to explore the ocean floor, from shipwrecks to marine habitats.

Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters.Sign Up “If our app helps inspire a few young people to find out more and become scientists, engineers or oceanographers then it will have done its job.” — SeaSee team

Credit: SOpHIE5. SOpHIE (the Surface Ocean pH Interactive Explorer) (Winner: Ocean Acidification) SOpHIE was designed to serve those working in aquaculture, fisheries and coastal monitoring, by delivering daily metrics of ocean acidification. This app lets users know if a site that matters to them is at risk from ocean acidification.ADVERTISEMENT“Having SOpHIE to take publicly available data and transform it, to create completely new data and offer some kind of interpretation, will hopefully go a long way in addressing the needs of stakeholders.” —SOpHIE team

Credit: Chile es Mar6.  Chile es Mar  (Winner: Judge's Award) Chile es Mar aims to bridge the information gap between science, fishermen and seafood consumers. The app connects local catch data from artisanal fishers with seafood purchasers, and promotes fair compensation for local, sustainable and traceable seafood. The developers’ hope is to export this model to support small-scale fishing communities in other Latin countries.“We bridged four different sectors: from artisan fishermen to consumers and from scientists to chefs in one place.” — Chile es Mar team

Credit: Endangered Waves7.  Endangered Waves   (Winner: Conservation) Endangered Waves can empower and incentivize surfers (there are 24 million worldwide) to monitor the health of their coastlines through crowdsourced data. Surfers can use this app to create crowdsourced data to identify and then reduce hazards in their local surf breaks. In the U.S., tourism and recreation comprise 72 percent of employment in the ocean economy and 31 percent of its gross value. Creating apps that cater to this market isn’t indulgent, it’s good business sense.“We have relied on a number of great partners to get where we are today ... so it really is the story of the surfing and technology communities coming together to create a tool to protect what we love.” —Endangered Waves teamADVERTISEMENT

Check out all of the finalist apps, which tackled topics from  reporting illegal fishing,  to visualizing sea level rise ,  identifying fish species with a picture and using  augmented reality to display real-time ocean data .In the next five years, mobile apps are  projected  to be worth $6.3 trillion, global app use will expand to over 6 billion people and the time spent using apps will more than double. Ocean data can ride this wave of mobile app services and help scale how we explore and protect our blue planet.The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.Rights & PermissionsMatthew MulrennanAyana Elizabeth Johnson